Grinding-machine.



-m.'sov,194. PATENTED DEC. 12, 1905.

\ H. 'B. NICHOLS. GRINDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.28.1905

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 807,194. PATENTED DEC. 12, 1905. H. B. NICHOLS. GRINDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28. 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

&

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GRINDING-MACHINE;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1905.

Application filed February 28, 1905. Serial No. 247,746.

- To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY B. NICHOLS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inGrinding- Machines, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to grinding machinery, and particularly to suchmachines as are intended for handling irregular shapes or heavy masseswhich are incapable of rapid or easybodilymovement. Specificallystated,it has reference to machines for grinding the pivot-pins ofswitch-tongues as employed in railway practice. Such pins, which arevery hard in their composition, nevertheless become worn from a circularto an irregular elliptical cross-section after some use and requireregrinding or removal and replacement in order to keep up the standardof equipment. In another application, filedFebruary 28, 1905, Serial No.247,745, I have described and illustrated a machine particularly adaptedfor this work in which the switchtongue or other heavy body is supportedupon a heavy tail-block and a grindingtool is carried upon a movablespindle mounted so as to have universal motion as well as longitudinalfeed, whereby the grinding-head can be constantly driven and at the sametime fed around the work, the latter being fed along to make acontinuous cut. In said machine the supporting-yoke for theguide-spindle is carried on a fixed block or pillar, and as thedressing-tool or grinding: wheel is carried around the work, preferablyby means of a heel-plate connection, the spindle is belt-driven toimpart the necessary rotary motion. In the application referred to Ihave disclosed several arrangements of the belt-drive for the spindle,the simplest of which comprises a spherical pulley mounted on thespindle within its yoke to permit constant, drive by lateral shifting-ofthe belt on the surface of the pulley, while the latter and its yoke areoscillated to impart an orbital path to the ends of the spindle and asimilar orbital path around the pin or other work to the grinding-wheel.With such a belt-drive and with the relatively high speed at which it isnecessary to operate the spindle I have found there is a certain loss inefficiency as compared with a similar drive on a spindle or shaft havingfixed bearings. In order toprevent this loss and to approximate theconditions present with fixed bearings, wherein the plane and the bodilyposition of the drivepulley are fixed, I have described in saidapplication and employed in practice a pulley having movement on thespindle and also a compensating belt with multiple turns or leads. Withthese devices I have achieved considerable success, although in none ofthem is the pulley itself fixed.

According to my present invention I provide a fixed pulley belt-driven,the relation of the belt and pulley being constant, and I gear thespindle to the pulley, so as to produce a positive drive while stillpermitting the universal motion of the spindle.

The object of the invention is to produce such positive drive as animprovement upon the apparatus described in the aforesaid application.

Generally stated, my present invention comprises a yoke having trunnionsmounted in shoes to travel oppositely in two arcs or slideways, thisyoke or bracket bearing carrying thespindle and surrounding a headblockor j ournal-bearing carried upon a pillar or support within the maintoolesupport upon which the slideways are mounted. This head-block, withits cap, is provided with internal bearings for a hollow stud or flangeformed on one face of a drive-pulley having an internal bevel gear. Thedrive-spindle passes through the hollow stud, which has a sufficientinternal diameter to permit of the universal motion, the spindle, or adrivingtube splined upon it, having a bevel-pinion meshing with the gearon'the pulley in all positions of the spindle. This arrangement gives apositive drive with a fixed pulley and only such losses as areincidental to gear transmission.

The general construction of my presentmachine may be the same as thatdescribed in my aforesaid application, and I shall therefore confine mydescription almost entirely to the improvement I now seek to cover.

For convenience I shall herein indicate the parts of a machinedescribed, so far as possible, by the same letters employed in the otherapplication. 7

Myinvention is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my grindingmachine provided with theimproved toolspindle-driving mechanism. Fig. 2 is a plan view of saidmechanism on an enlarged scale,

and Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section through the same.

Referring first to Fig. 1, the reference-letter A represents the bed ofthe machine, which is or may be similar in construction to the bed of anengine-lathe and supported on pedestals or standards a a, which mayconveniently be hollow, so as to be capable of use as receptacles fortools, &c., doors a a being preferably provided. Bolted to the uppersurface of the bed A, near one end thereof, is the head-stock B, inwhich is journaled the live-spindley, driven by a belt J on the pulleyf, or by any other suitable means. The inner end of said live-spindlecarries the face-plate F, to which is secured the semispherical socketmemb er j, cons tructed to engage a conjugate ball-shaped member 6formed on the end of the yoke or bracket bearing E in which thetool-spindle e is journaled, as will be hereinafter further described.At about midway of the length of the bed A is bolted the tool-support D,which carries the bracket-bearing E. The latter is provided withtrunnions e a which may be journaled in shoes (not shown) slidablymounted in the segmental guideways d, carried on the support D, as shownand described in my application above referred to, whereby saidbracket-bearing and tool-spindle are mounted for universal movementthatis to say, they can oscillate in both horizontal and vertical planes.The tool-spindle e is keyed in the sleeve a so as to slide but notrotate therein, and a bevelpinion e is secured to said sleeve. Thebracket-bearing E, which is or may be of the same form as that describedin the compan ion application, consists of two cylindrical bosses e 6connected by the yokes e 6 carrying the trunnions e e and passing aroundthe central upper portion of the pulley-support D, as clearly shown inFig. 2. The said cylindrical bosses e e constitute the journalbearingsfor the sleeve 6 The bracketbearing E extends rearwardly in the form ofa yoke 6 which is provided on its end with the ball-shaped member 6above referred to. On the front end of the tool-spindle e is secured thecutting-tool e, shown as an emerywheel, the periphery of which issuitably beveled to conform to the surface of the pivotpin p or otherwork. The switch-tongue, in dicated at P, is clamped in the w0rk-support0 by suitable clamping means 0 c in a vertical position, so that the pinp, which is to be trued, projects horizontally toward the tool-supportD. The work-support is slidably mounted on the ways of the bed A and isadapted to be fed along said ways by a leadscrew, the shaft 9 of whichonly being shown, which can be rotated by the hand-wheel G or drivenautomatically in either direction from the live-spindle f This mechanismand the means whereby the automatic feed is thrown out at predeterminedpoints may be of any usual construction or may be that shown in my otherapplication. It is therefore unnecessary to show or describe suchmechanism and means in detail in this case,

and I have illustrated in Fig. 1 only the following parts: The belt '5,which is driven by the live-spindlef and drives the pulley i on thecounter-shaft g. The pulleys i and "i carried by said counter-shaft,drive the loose pulleys g 9 carried by the lead-screw shaft g, inopposite directions by means of the crossed and straight belts i 11 Asuitable clutch (not shown) connects either of said pulleys g g to thelead-screw g. The mechanism for feed ing the tool-spindle elongitudinally in the sleeve 6 may be the same as that disclosed in mysaid application, consisting of afeed-screw R,rotatably carried inbearings e c ,formed on the bracket-bearingE and engaging anut 1',secured to the rear end of said tool-spindle by any suitable means. Thefront end of said feedscrew R carries a bevel-gear r, which meshes witha similar bevel-gear T the spindle of which carries a hand-wheel r, bywhich the feed-screw can be rotated to feed the grinding-wheel spindlein its bearm s.

TIaving thus described the machineitself, I will nowset forth myimproveddrive mechanism for the spindle.

The tool-support D comprises two side members bolted to the bed-frame Aand preferably cross-connected by suitable webs or flanges, which needno specific description or illustration. These websmay be united for thesake of strength to formone solid cross-body or block D. (Shown in Fig.1 in dotted lines and in Fig. 3 in section.) If the webs are madeseparate, however, this part D becomes apostindependently bolted to thebed A and upstanding between the two side supports. This part of theconstruction is a matter of efficient design merely and may therefore bevaried Without changing the invention. For convenience I shall call thepart D a post. Upon the postDis secured a cap d, carrying thejournal-box (Z for the pulley d This ournal boX or bearing consists ofthe usual pillow-block with cap (1 and cap-nuts d", inclosing thecomposition metal (P. The pulley d has its periphery slightly crowned,as usual, to take the belt d and is keyed or otherwise rigidly securedto the hollow stud or bearing-sleeve cl, which projects as an annularflange from the side of the pulley. In order to secure perfect rigidity,I prefer to form the bearing-sleeve d and the pulley d in one, butwhether formed in this way or built up I provide an internal bevelgear(i which is keyed into the pulley, as shown, the keys employed beingheaded over at both ends as rivets to hold the parts solidly together.

Upon the spindle e I secure the adjustingblock with feed-nut 1', workingon the feedscrew R. (Best shown in Fig. 1.) The spindle is journaled inthe boxes 6, carried on the bracket-bearing E, being splined in thesleeve 6 which permits of longitudinal feed movement of the spindle inthe sleeve while the latter furnishes the rotary bearing-surface.Rigidly secured upon the sleeve 6 just within the after bearing 6, isthe bevelpinion e, cut to mesh properly with the gear 0Z The bearing orcontact circles of the gear and pinion having been determined and properengagement secured by setting the socket f on the face-plate F, thisadjustment remains permanent for any given pair of gears. Obviously,-however, the ratios and also the angle of the spindle may be changed bychanging the gears and setting up the socketf afresh. Under normalconditions the radial distance of the cutting edge of tool 6 from theaxis of the Work p is regulated through the feed-screw R. In fact, inall these machines I do not depend upon any other adjustment radially,except where it becomes necessary to change the size of thecutting-toolor grinding-head or to accommodate extra large work. As thepins 2) run about the same sizes, such change is rarely necessary.

It will be observed from Figs. 1 and 3 that the spindle e and itsbearing-sleeve 0 pass through the open center (i of the pulleysleeve d,the proportions of the parts being such and the edges of thepulley-sleeves being so beveled that the bracket-bearing E and thespindle may swing about their center without interference. This centerlies in the axis of the pulley d and its sleeve (i also in the axis ofthe trunnions 6 also in the axis of the spindle. Hence the intersectionof these three axes, which should also be in the vertical axis of thepost D, is the center of motion of all the parts or dead-point, andthis' determines with perfect accuracy the facelines of the teeth of thegear and pinion d a V-Vhen these teeth are properly cut and set,therefore, they will engage with precision in all positions of thebracket and spindle. Thus I am enabled to secure a perfectly-uniformtransmission of power to the spindle under all circumstances.

The operation of my improved machine will be sufliciently apparent fromthe foregoing description without a detailed statement.

The driving-belt for the spindle (indicated at 01") and the driving-beltJ for the tool-feed and rotation may take their power from the sameshaft in proper ratios, the spindle of course running at arelativelyhigh speed. In order to get the effect of summation, thedirections of rotation should be opposite; but this is not atallessential.

It is apparent that many changes may be made in the specific embodimentof the ideas "same letter.

herein set forth without in any wise departing from the spirit of myinvention, and I wish it distinctly understood that all such fall withinthe scope and purview of the invention. Thus instead of using a gear andpinion it would be possible for some classes of work to substitute ahollow conical frictionsurface for the gear (1 and a small plainfriction-wheel e for the bevel-pinion bearing the It would then bepossible by shifting the pinion to change the speed of thespindle-drive, at the same time compensating by adjusting the socketOther changes will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described my invention, wha I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent of the United States, is

1. In a machine of the class described, the combination of atool-spindle, a dressing-tool secured to one end thereof, means to movesaid spindle so as to carry said tool around the work, a bevel-pinionsecured to said spindle, an internal bevel-gear mounted in a fixedbearing so as to continuously mesh with and drive said pinion andspindle while the latter is at the same time carrying the tool aroundthe work and means for feeding the toolspindle.

2. In a machine of the class described, the combination of atool-support, a work-sup port, a tool-spindle swiveled in saidtool-support for universal movement, a grindingwheel on the end of saidspindle adjacent to said work-support, means to move said spindle so asto carry said wheel around the work, an internal bevel-gear journaled insaid tool support, a bevel-pinion secured to said spindle and meshingwith said gear, whereby said spindle can be constantly rotated, while atthe same time being carried around the work and means for feeding thetool-spindle.

3. In a machine of the class described, the combination with atool-support, of a toolspindle swiveled therein for universal movement,a pinion secured to said spindle an internal bevel gear journaled forrotation in said tool-support and meshing with said pinion, whereby saidspindle can be simultaneously rotated and given a universal motion andmeans for feeding the tool-spindle.

4.. In a machine of the class described, the

combination with a tool-support of a bracket bearing swiveled thereinfor universal motion, a tool-spindle journaled in said bearing ,andprovided with means to feed the same longitudinally in said bearing, abevel-pinion secured to said spindle, an annular internal bevel-gearjournaled in said support and surrounding said spindle, means to rotatesaid gear and thereby said pinion, also, and means to impart a universalmotion to said bracketbearing.

5. In a machine of the class described, the combination with aheadstock, a tool-sup- ICO IIO

IIS

port and a work-support, of a bracket-bearing swiveled for universalmotion in said toolsupport, a face plate rotatably carried in saidhead-stock, a universal joint between said face-plate andbracket-bearing, a tool spindle journaled in said bearing, adressingtool carried by said spindle, an annular, internal gearrotatably mounted in said toolsupport, a conjugate pinion secured tosaid spindle so as to mesh with said gear, means to feed saidwork-support relatively to said tool-support, and means to drive saidfaceplate and annular gear, whereby the tool is rotated andsimultaneously moved in a circular path around the work.

6. In a machine of the class described, the

' combination with a tool-support, of a toolspindle swiveled therein,carrying a grinding-wheel, a bevel-pinion secured to said spindle, acombined annular, internal bevel-gear and pulley ournaled in saidsupport and sur rounding said spindle, means to rotate said pulley meansto move said spindle to carry said Wheel around the work and means forfeeding the tool-spindle longitudinally.

7. In a metalworking machine, a bed or support, 'a work-support mountedthereon, means for holding the work rigidly thereto, a tool-support,means for feeding the worksupport a tool-holder having universal motionupon said tool-support, means for driving the tool so as to direct itsout, means for feeding the tool, fixed transmission means mounted on thetool-support and power-driven, together with conjugate transmissionmeans upon or connected with the tool and so positioned relatively tothe center of motion as to properly take power from the fixedtransmission -means in all positions of the tool, substantially asdescribed.

8. In a grinding-machine, the combination with the frame thereof of awork-support and a tool-support, means for rigidly clamping work on theworksupport, means for feeding the work support toward the tool supportmeans movably supporting a tool on the toolsupport, means to cause saidtool to travel relatively to the work, and conjugate driving meanshaving one element fixed with re spect to the frame for receiving powerfrom without, and a cooperating element connected to the tool and drivenfrom the first element in all positions of the tool, substantially asdescribed.

9. In a grinding-machine, the combination with a work-support of atool-spindle, means to swing said spindle and thereby cause the tool totravel with respect to the work, means for feeding the toollongitudinally and tool-driving mechanism comprising two elements, onerelatively fixed to receive power from without the machine, and theother movable with relation to the first during the swing of thespindle, but operatively eonnected to receive the transmitted poweruniformly throughout its travel, substantially as described.

10. In a grinding-machine, a work-support, and a movable tool-holder, atool-spindle adjustably carried by said holder, and a pair of gears, onecarrying a pulley and driven from without the machine, the other securedto the spindle and meshing with the first throughout the movement of thetool-holder, substantially as described.

11. In a metal-working machine, a worksupport,a tool-spindle and aswinging bracketbearing therefor, a drive-pulley mounted to receivepower from without the machine, and a pair of intermeshing gearsconnecting the drive-pulley and tool-spindle so as to transmit saidpower to the spindle in all positions of the latter.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY B. NICHOLS.

itnesses O. B. VoYNow, GEO. B. TAYLOR.

